2024-25 NBA Regular Season
Houston Rockets v Golden State Warriors
Toyota Center
Houston, Texas
Friday 14 February 2025
Tip-off at 03:00 CAT
Houston Rockets will be looking to improve their woeful recent run of form when they host Golden State Warriors at the Toyota Center on the morning of Friday, February 14.
The Rockets have not enjoyed a good start to the month, losing five straight which included home and away defeats to Brooklyn Nets in the opening week.
However, Ime Udoka's team snapped a six-game skid with a 94-87 victory over Toronto Raptors on February 9 to sit fifth in the Western Conference, marginally behind Los Angeles Lakers (4th) in win percentage.
Fred VanVleet missed a fifth consecutive game for Houston with an ankle injury and Alperen Sengun left in the first quarter against the Raptors due to back spasms, but they overturned a four-point deficit in the fourth to win by seven.
Starters Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green scored 19 and 18 points respectively, and Udoka attributed the victory to an improved second-half performance.
"They all count, sometimes they're ugly and you have to fight your way out through some adversity and injuries and line-up - things like that. To have Alpe [Sengun] go out early and kind of being mud in the first half offensively specifically, we guarded well enough all night," Udoka said.
"If you're only going to score 94 it's good to hold somebody to 87. Much better in the second half in general... we flipped the turnovers-assists in the second half, where we had seven assists and 13 turnovers first half, we had 10 assists and only two turnovers second half."
The Warriors made a strong start to the season, winning 12 of their opening 15 games, but they've struggled for consistency since then.
Steve Kerr's team haven't won more than two games in a row since mid-November and they occupy 10th place in the West after improving their record slightly by picking up six victories from their last 10 outings.
A 125-111 triumph over Milwaukee Bucks on February 11 kept Golden State ahead of Phoenix Suns in the race for a play-in berth as Stephen Curry scored a season-high 38 points and Jimmy Butler added 20 in his second game for the franchise.
Kerr praised the ability of the former Miami Heat small forward to adapt so quickly to his new surroundings after registering two 20-plus games from the get-go.
"It has been absolutely seamless and it's because of Jimmy's IQ," Kerr said. "He just has an incredible feel for the game, so all we had to do was give him a few of our actions, terminology last couple of days and we're running three or four things, otherwise it's just basketball and he knows how to play basketball."
Houston Rockets v Golden State Warriors - Head-to-head, Regular Season
Games played: 236
Rockets wins: 127
Warriors wins: 109